Election results

SACRAMENTO, Calif.  The independent commission tasked with redrawing California's legislative districts does not yet exist, but voters in November will have the opportunity to either expand its reach or dismantle it entirely.

Two opposing measures on the ballot would determine how the boundaries of the most populous state's 120 legislative and 53 congressional seats are reconfigured in time for the 2012 elections.

Proposition 20 would shift responsibility for congressional redistricting from the state Legislature to a 14-member citizens panel that voters approved in 2008. The panel, approved by voters in 2008 and still being formed, will include five Democrats, five Republicans and four voters registered outside those parties.

Proposition 27, alternatively, would abolish the commission before it has a chance to act, returning responsibility for drawing state Senate, Assembly and Board of Equalization district boundaries back to the Legislature.

The measure also would set a $2.5 million cap on redistricting activities, which take place once every 10 years. Supporters say that is several million dollars less than what the state would spend each decade on the redistricting commission.

Proponents of one measure vehemently oppose the other.

Those in favor of keeping the commission say it will prevent politicians from continuing to draw districts to protect their own jobs.

Critics describe the panel as a waste of taxpayer money and its members as amateurs unqualified for such an important task.

"Our state is in crisis! Unemployment, crime, massive debt," opponents warn in their ballot argument against Proposition 20, which would expand the independent panel's responsibilities. "It is time to stop nonsense political games of reapportionment."

Incumbent politicians hoping to go back to the old, Legislature-controlled system have contributed hefty sums to the "Yes on Fair, Yes on 27" campaign, which raised $3.3 million between Jan. 1 and June 30. On Aug. 31 alone, six Democratic state lawmakers contributed a total of $378,000 to the effort.

"The current legislative redistricting scheme puts power in the hands of an unelected, unrepresentative and unaccountable bureaucracy," said Assembly Speaker John Perez whose ballot measure committee has given $49,000 to the "Yes on 27" campaign.

Perez, a Los Angeles Democrat, described the attempt to expand the redistricting commission's role as a "political power play" - a fear shared by much of the state's Democratic majority. Not surprisingly, the California Democratic Party has come out against the commission, while the state GOP supports broadening its role.

"A 'yes' on Proposition 27 means you're giving job security to state legislators who would be able to have everything gerrymandered so that when they're termed out of office, they can move right into Congress," said Mark Standriff, a spokesman for the California Republican Party.

Other supporters of the citizens redistricting commission have formed a broad coalition - "Yes on 20, No on 27, Hold Politicians Accountable." It includes AARP, the California Chamber of Commerce and the NAACP's California chapter.

The coalition's efforts are funded almost entirely by Charles Munger Jr., a physicist from Palo Alto whose father has been one of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's major benefactors. He and his wife had contributed more than $4.2 million to the campaign as of Sept. 13.